NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 144 of 150

Correct — C, Madhya Pradesh. Measured as absolute area rather than as a share of the state, Madhya Pradesh has led every recent India State of Forest Report — about 77,462 sq km in the 2015 assessment, 77,482 sq km in 2019 and 77,073 sq km in 2023. Two things combine to produce that figure. It is the largest state in the country by area even after the separation of Chhattisgarh in 2000, and a great part of it lies over the Vindhya and Satpura ranges and the Maikal hills, country too broken for cultivation and carrying extensive teak and sal forest. Of the options offered, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra are both in the national top five but a long way behind, and Andhra Pradesh is further behind still.

• (a)Maharashtra — Maharashtra is among the top five states by forest area — about 50,778 sq km in the 2019 report — but that is well under two-thirds of the Madhya Pradesh figure. Much of the state is the open Deccan lava country under cotton and sugarcane rather than forest.
• (b)Chhattisgarh — The strongest of the wrong answers. Chhattisgarh is heavily forested — around 55,611 sq km in 2019, third in the country — and it has a much higher share of its own area under forest than Madhya Pradesh does. But the question asks for absolute area, and on that count it stands below the state it was carved out of.
• (d)Andhra Pradesh — After the 2014 reorganisation Andhra Pradesh is largely coastal plain and Rayalaseema, with forest confined mainly to the Eastern Ghats. It is not in the top group on either measure.

The India State of Forest Report, published every two years by the Forest Survey of India, gives two quite different league tables. By absolute forest cover the leaders are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra. By forest cover as a percentage of the state's own area the leaders are the small hill states and island territories — Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya among the states, with Lakshadweep highest of all. Examiners set questions from both tables, so the wording has to be read carefully.

The reliable way to keep this straight is to remember why the two lists differ. A large state can hold a great deal of forest while still being mostly farmland, which is Madhya Pradesh; a small hill state can be almost entirely forested and still contribute a modest absolute figure, which is Mizoram. In this paper the very next question asks the percentage version on a different set of states, so the two items are deliberately paired. Madhya Pradesh has held first place by area right through the recent series, including in the 2023 report — although that edition also recorded the country's largest forest-cover loss in the same state.

• Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover by area in India — about 77,482 sq km in the India State of Forest Report 2019.
• The next four by area in that report were Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
• By percentage of state area the leaders are quite different — Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
• Madhya Pradesh remained first by area in the India State of Forest Report 2023, at about 77,073 sq km.
• Madhya Pradesh is India's largest state by geographical area, and much of it lies over the Vindhya and Satpura ranges.

• Answering with the state that has the highest percentage when the question asks for the largest area.
• Forgetting Arunachal Pradesh, which is second by area and first among the states on percentage.
• Assuming Chhattisgarh must lead because it is proportionately more forested than Madhya Pradesh.

Forest statistics come as largest-area items, as percentage-ordering items, or as a which-report-said-what current-affairs question.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which state stands second after Madhya Pradesh in absolute forest cover in the recent India State of Forest Reports?

  • (a)Odisha
  • (b)Arunachal Pradesh
  • (c)Maharashtra
  • (d)Karnataka

  Answer(b) Arunachal Pradesh — second by area, and also one of the highest by percentage of state area.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The India State of Forest Report is published by

  • (a)the National Remote Sensing Centre
  • (b)the Forest Survey of India
  • (c)the Wildlife Institute of India
  • (d)the Central Pollution Control Board

  Answer(b) the Forest Survey of India — based at Dehradun, publishing the report every two years.